Posts Tagged ‘doctors’

Republican House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan has released a new proposal with Democrat Senator Ron Wyden that would reform Medicare in a way that will ensure that seniors have real choices when it comes to their health care.

The genius of this plan is that it would allow seniors to stick with traditional fee-for-service Medicare – thus undercutting Democrat claims that Republicans are “ending Medicare as we know it.”

The irony in the Democrat’s claim is what they did to Medicare through the passage of their health care bill in 2010. They cut $500 billion over ten years in order to fund new government programs and the created a 15-member board to make decisions about what procedures and prescriptions would be covered by Medicare – essentially standing between doctors and their patients.

Given the ever-increasing opposition to the health care law, Democrats might want to be careful about how they play this card in 2012.

Already there are consequences of the passage Obama’s governmenttakeover of health care.

Dr. Joseph Scherzer is informing patients that he will close his practice by 2014 – when the bill goes into full effect – if it hasn’t been repealed or struck down by the courts.

While it may be years before most Americans feel the impact of President Obama’s health-care bill, a few patients in Scottsdale, Ariz., got a small taste of life under Obamacare last week when they arrived at their Dermatologist’s office only to see a sign with the following taped to the front door:

“If you voted for Obamacare, be aware these doors will close before it goes into effect.” The note is signed Joseph M. Scherzer M.D. and includes the following addendum: “****Unless Congress or the Courts repeal the BILL.”

Scherzer, who attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, has been a practicing Dermatologist in Scottsdale, Ariz., since 1976. Reached yesterday at his office, Dr. Scherzer, 63, said he plans to stop practicing before 2014 when the bill’s full impact will be felt because he refuses to deal with the headache of increased government involvement in health care.

“I’m absolutely serious [about stopping practicing] and it’s not just because I’ll be nearing 65,” Scherzer said. “The stress is what would push me out the door. From what I’ve gathered hearing from my friends and peers, most physicians I’ve heard from feel the same way.”

Scherzer said the bill’s emphasis on punitive measures for physicians not following government-prescribed treatment methods under Medicare would increase his anxiety level to the point he would no longer be able to practice medicine. The maximum fine was previously $10,000; under the bill it will now be capped at $50,000. Scherzer said the fine system makes seeing a Medicare patients a difficult and stressful exercise.

This is just the beginning of what is to come as the bill is fully implemented.It wasn’t just rhetoric during the debate when there were warnings of fewer doctors, longer wait times and the rationing of care.That is coming, and the proponents of government-run health care know it.Watch how they spin in the months to come.